The
Battle of Hernani has been called the fall of the
"Classicist stronghold" (Easton 57) and a triumph for
the Romantics. It was not only a victory for Romanticism,
though, as many bohemians used it as a chance to upend
convention and flaunt their 'otherness.' Here is how:

The
members of Hugo's salon were busy, their careers growing
every day, so eventually Hugo "opened his house to youngsters
with a little more time on their hands, to the budding
writer and the artist-elect" (Easton 50). Many of his
original recruits were dismayed at this, having hoped
to maintain the exclusivity of the old group. Hernani
was a play by Hugo which exhaulted the Romantic ideals
and condemned those of the Classicals. Hugo hatched
a plan, enlisting his young recruits to ensure a full
house on opening night, February 25th, 1830.

He
had red slips - in essence tickets for free admission
- distributed in order to pack the house. Naturally, many
of the young people who attended this free performance
were artists and writers of Bohemia, and they didn't go
quietly. Swarms of members of the Romantic and Bohemian
community attended the performance, and what ensued has
been described in far too many books for it to be left
unquoted:

The
crowd at Hernani as the two factions, Romantics
and Classicals, try to out-boo and out-cheer each other.

"the
arrival of the train-bands outside the Comedie-Francaise
at three o'clock in the afternoon; a four-hour wait in
the locked auditorium; the disgust of the fashionable
audience, arriving at seven o'clock and finding the theatre
turned into a public restaurant - and worse; finally,
the revolutionary nature of the play, given with evident
disapproval by the actors themselves, and attended by
scuffles and interruptions beyond the footlights" (Easton
52).

The
Battle of Hernani was one of the most outrageous and
outspoken examples of rebellion against classical ideals
and Bourgeois hypocrisy. The "Romantic Army" attended
the production in outlandish clothing, mocking the wealthy
and mainstream. Hugo remembers the event as such: "...wild
whimsical characters, bearded, long-haired, dressed
in every fashion except the reigning one, in pea-jackets,
Spanish cloaks, in waistcoats a la Robespierre, in Henry
III bonnets...and this in the middle of Paris in broad
daylight" (Easton 53).